Search results for "PLASTICITY"

Sex-specific compensatory growth in the larvae of the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella

2017

Deficiency of food resources in ontogeny is known to prolong an organism's developmental time and affect body size in adulthood. Yet life‐history traits are plastic: an organism can increase its growth rate to compensate for a period of slow growth, a phenomenon known as ‘compensatory growth’. We tested whether larvae of the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella can accelerate their growth after a fast of 12, 24 or 72 h. We found that a subgroup of female larvae showed compensatory growth when starved for 12 h. Food deficiency lasting more than 12 h resulted in longer development and lower mass gain. Strength of encapsulation reactions against a foreign body inserted in haemocoel was the wea…

2021

Predator-induced plasticity in life-history and antipredator traits during the larval period has been extensively studied in organisms with complex life-histories. However, it is unclear whether different levels of predation could induce warning signals in aposematic organisms. Here, we investigated whether predator-simulated handling affects warning coloration and life-history traits in the aposematic wood tiger moth larva, Arctia plantaginis. As juveniles, a larger orange patch on an otherwise black body signifies a more efficient warning signal against predators but this comes at the costs of conspicuousness and thermoregulation. Given this, one would expect that an increase in predation…

How ants acclimate: Impact of climatic conditions on the cuticular hydrocarbon profile

2017

1.Organisms from temperate zones are exposed to seasonal changes and must be able to cope with a wide range of climatic conditions. Especially ectotherms, including insects, are at risk to desiccate under dry and warm conditions, the more so given the changing climate. 2.To adjust to current conditions, organisms acclimate through changes in physiology, morphology and/or behaviour. Insects protect themselves against desiccation through a layer of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) on their body surface. Hence, acclimation may also affect the CHC profile, changing their waterproofing capacity under different climatic conditions. 3.Here, we investigated the acclimation response of two Temnothorax a…

Expression properties exhibit correlated patterns with the fate of duplicated genes, their divergence, and transcriptional plasticity in Saccharomyco…

2017

Gene duplication is an important source of novelties and genome complexity. What genes are preserved as duplicated through long evolutionary times can shape the evolution of innovations. Identifying factors that influence gene duplicability is therefore an important aim in evolutionary biology. Here, we show that in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the levels of gene expression correlate with gene duplicability, its divergence, and transcriptional plasticity. Genes that were highly expressed before duplication are more likely to be preserved as duplicates for longer evolutionary times and wider phylogenetic ranges than genes that were lowly expressed. Duplicates with higher expression lev…

Spatial and Temporal Variability in Migration of a Soaring Raptor Across Three Continents

2019

Disentangling individual- and population-level variation in migratory movements is necessary for understanding migration at the species level. However, very few studies have analyzed these patterns across large portions of species' distributions. We compiled a large telemetry dataset on the globally endangered egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (94 individuals, 188 completed migratory journeys), tracked across similar to 70% of the species' global range, to analyze spatial and temporal variability of migratory movements within and among individuals and populations. We found high migratory connectivity at large spatial scales (i.e., different subpopulations showed little overlap in winte…

Little parallelism in genomic signatures of local adaptation in two sympatric, cryptic sister species.

2020

Species living in sympatry and sharing a similar niche often express parallel phenotypes as a response to similar selection pressures. The degree of parallelism within underlying genomic levels is often unexplored, but can give insight into the mechanisms of natural selection and adaptation. Here, we use multi-dimensional genomic associations to assess the basis of local and climate adaptation in two sympatric, cryptic Crematogaster levior ant species along a climate gradient. Additionally, we investigate the genomic basis of chemical communication in both species. Communication in insects is mainly mediated by cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which also protect against water loss and, hence,…

Adaptation to environmental stress at different timescales

2020

Environments are changing rapidly, and to cope with these changes, organisms have to adapt. Adaptation can take many shapes and occur at different speeds, depending on the type of response, the trait, the population, and the environmental conditions. The biodiversity crisis that we are currently facing illustrates that numerous species and populations are not capable of adapting with sufficient speed to ongoing environmental changes. Here, we discuss current knowledge on the ability of animals and plants to adapt to environmental stress on different timescales, mainly focusing on thermal stress and ectotherms. We discuss within-generation responses that can be fast and induced within minute…

Strong signature of selection in seeder populations but not in resprouters of the fynbos heathErica coccinea(Ericaceae)

2016

A higher frequency of natural selection is expected in populations of organisms with shorter generation times. In fire-prone ecosystems, populations of seeder plants behave as functionally semelparous populations, with short generation times compared to populations of resprouter plants, which are truly iteroparous. Therefore, a stronger signature of natural selection should be detected in seeder populations, favoured by their shorter generation times and higher rates of population turnover. Here we test this idea in Erica coccinea from the Cape Floristic Region, which is dimorphic for post-fire regeneration mode. We measured three floral traits supposedly subject to natural selection in see…

Rapid adaptation to high temperatures in Chironomus riparius

2018

AbstractEffects of seasonal or daily temperature variation on fitness and physiology of ectothermic organisms and their ways to cope with such variations have been widely studied. However, the way multivoltines organisms cope with temperature variations from a generation to another is still not well understood and complex to identify. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the multivoltine midgeChironomus ripariusMeigen (1803) responds mainly via acclimation as predicted by current theories, or if rapid genetic adaptation is involved. To investigate this issue, a common garden approach has been applied. A mix of larvae from five European populations was raised in the laboratory at …

A Migratory Divide Among Red-Necked Phalaropes in the Western Palearctic Reveals Contrasting Migration and Wintering Movement Strategies

2019

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